About

Niall O’Donnell joined RiverVest Venture Partners in 2006, initially as a Kauffman Fellow. Niall became a managing director in 2014, focusing on biopharmaceutical opportunities.

Dr. O’Donnell is a board member of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Lyric Pharmaceuticals and co-founder of Reneo Pharmaceuticals.  Niall was acting interim Chief Medical Officer at Lumena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Shire in 2014) where he was central to the development and execution of its clinical strategy. Niall was also co-founder and board member of Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (acquired by Pfizer in 2011) which he helped seed and develop the clinical strategy, and is a co-inventor on several key patents.

Prior to RiverVest, Niall was an immunologist at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development in San Diego.  Niall co-authored the first paper validating the newly discovered histamine H4 receptor as a key regulator of immune pathologies.  Dr. O’Donnell was a member of the scientific advisory board of Ziarco Ltd. (acquired by Novartis in 2016), a developer of H4 Receptor antagonists.

Niall earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Dundee, Scotland, and M.A. in Biochemistry from Pembroke College, Oxford. He also received an M.B.A. from the Rady School of Management of the University of California, San Diego. 

Lyn Baranowski is the Chief Executive Officer of Avalyn Pharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing targeted medicines for patients with rare lung diseases in need of better therapeutic options.  Avalyn currently has two programs in clinical development: inhaled versions of IPF & ILD medicines pirfenidone and nintedanib.  With inhaled delivery, Avalyn’s platform promises to fundamentally improve the product profile of the molecules in two ways: by increasing lung exposure at smaller doses than the oral forms, potentially improving efficacy, while decreasing systemic exposure, resulting in improved tolerability / AE profiles.

Lyn has more than two decades of experience leading a vast array of functions in biotech, big pharma, and venture capital firms with a focus in the respiratory therapeutic area. Prior to joining Avalyn, Ms. Baranowski served as chief operating officer at Altavant Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company that successfully built and developed a portfolio of therapies for rare respiratory diseases prior to its 2019 acquisition by Sumitomo Dainippon. Earlier in her career, she served in senior-level corporate development and commercial roles, including vice president of commercial development at Pearl Therapeutics, which successfully developed a portfolio of asthma & COPD medicines prior to its sale to AstraZeneca for $1.15 Billion in 2013; and vice president in a healthcare-focused venture capital firm based in New York. She had previously held roles in business development, marketing and public affairs with Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland and the U.S.

She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts from American University. In addition to her role at Avalyn, Ms. Baranowski serves on the board of directors of Rani Therapeutics, a company developing technology for the oral delivery of biologic drugs, and on the planning committee for the American Thoracic Society’s Respiratory Innovation Summit, an annual meeting that unites the innovators, investors, and clinicians who are leading the fight to create powerful new treatments for deadly and crippling diseases of the lungs and airways.

Tiba joined Norwest advisors in 2021 as a biotech investor with 20+ years of research and investment experience.

Based in the San Francisco office, she invests in healthcare with a focus on early to mid-stage companies within the therapeutics sector.

Prior to joining Norwest, Tiba spent over ten years at Novo Holdings A/S, one of the top life sciences investment firms, with offices in the US and Europe. In her previous role, she was responsible for the deployment of ~280M of capital in private biotech, MedTech and HCIT companies. Earlier in her career Tiba was a banker focused on M&A, licensing, and financing transactions involving biotech/pharma.

Tiba attended the University of California Irvine where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics with a Biomedical concentration. She also holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California San Francisco, where she also did her Postdoctoral Fellowship. Tiba is also a published author of scientific articles and book chapters in rational drug design.

Sofia joined the Life Sciences Team of Andera Partners (formerly Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners) in 2009. Prior to joining Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, she worked as a consultant at L.E.K. Consulting in London and as a research scientist at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals in Boston, US. Sofia obtained her first degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and her PhD in Cell Biology from Cancer Research UK. Sofia is a member of the board of LogicBio Therapeutics, Tricares, Avalyn Pharma and Sanifit.

Jonathan Leff is a physician-scientist with a long history of drug development experience in the biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry. He currently serves as Executive Partner of Sofinnova Investments, a life science investment firm. Previously he was the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Ascendis Pharma, a biotechnology company developing medicines for rare endocrine disorders. Prior to Ascendis, Dr. Leff served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development at InterMune (acquired by Roche/Genentech in 2014). At InterMune, Dr. Leff oversaw the development and US approval of Esbriet^® (oral pirfenidone) for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Prior to InterMune, Dr. Leff served as Chief Medical Officer at KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, and Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Halozyme Therapeutics. Prior to Halozyme, Dr. Leff was Vice President and Global Head of Inflammation Clinical Development at Roche, where he managed the worldwide clinical development programs for MabThera^®/Rituxan^®, ocrelizumab, and Actemra^®. Dr. Leff also held various positions at Amgen, including Vice President, North American Medical Affairs. Prior to Amgen, Dr. Leff served at Merck developing and commercializing Singulair^®. Dr. Leff trained in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Colorado in Denver and served in various positions, including director of the Outpatient Pulmonary Clinic. Dr. Leff holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, and received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

David joined Pivotal bioVentures in 2018 and serves as a Venture Partner, responsible for leading new investments at the fund. During his time with Pivotal he has been leading several investments in innovative healthcare companies as well as company incubations in this field. He is a member of the Board of Directors of several healthcare companies.

Prior to Pivotal, David served as the Chief Business Officer at BioLineRx (NASDAQ: BLRX), where he was responsible for licensing, M&A, strategic alliances and investor relations, and built partnerships between BioLineRx and several leading life sciences companies. He was also responsible for investor relations and was involved in several successful financing rounds on NASDAQ. Prior to his role at BioLineRx David was working for Sanofi, one of the leading global pharmaceutical companies. He held a number of management roles in corporate development, including running M&A projects and licensing transactions.

David gained his MBA at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and his B.A. in statistics and political science at the University of Haifa.

Peter joined Novo Ventures (US) Inc. in San Francisco, California in 2012. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Bolt Therapeutics (chairman), E-Scape Bio., Aligos, Swift Health Systems/Inbrace and Viewpoint.

From 2009-2012, Peter was employed with Novo A/S as a partner in Novo Ventures in Denmark. In 2004, Peter co-founded Curalogic A/S, served as CEO until 2009 and took the company public in 2006. From 2000-2004, he was Chief Operating Officer of 7TM Pharma A/S, which he also co-founded. Previously, he worked for 11 years with NeuroSearch A/S, where he was responsible for all aspects of pre-clinical and clinical drug development.

Peter holds a PhD in medicinal chemistry from the Royal Danish School of Pharmacy. He has also been a post doc with Yale University’s department of organic chemistry.

Ketan Patel is a Partner with F-Prime Capital and has worked in the healthcare sector as an investor, consultant, and physician. Prior to joining F-Prime Capital in 2007, Dr. Patel advised biopharmaceutical and medical device companies on brand strategy, clinical development plans, and business development activities in the corporate consulting division of Leerink Swann & Company. Dr. Patel served as a physician at the VA Boston Healthcare System and at Weill Cornell Medical Center-New York Presbyterian Hospital and Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he completed his internal medicine training.

Dr. Patel focuses on investing in therapeutics and medical device companies and has served as a director or board observer of Aclaris Therapeutics, Acorn Cardiovascular, Amphora Medical, Bioconnect Systems, Eywa Pharma, Avalyn Pharma, Ivenix, Laurus Labs, Medwell Ventures, Menlo Therapeutics, NextWave Pharmaceuticals, NFlection Therapeutics, Vicept Therapeutics, and Xcyton Diagnostics.

Dr. Patel is a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine, where he received both his MD and MBA as part of that institution’s Healthcare Management Program and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He completed his undergraduate studies in biology and economics with highest honors at Rutgers University.

Mark W. Surber, Ph.D. is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Avalyn Pharma. At Avalyn, Dr. Surber serves as Chief Scientific Officer and is the inventor of AP01 and pipeline patent estates. Dr. Surber has over 25 years of pharmaceutical, device and diagnostic development experience, most of which starting, financing and growing biopharmaceutical companies.

Prior to Avalyn, Dr. Surber served as a consultant providing multi-disciplinary drug development services to pharmaceutical companies, including Elevation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Sunovion in 2012) developing the now marketed inhaled Lonhala^® Magnair^® combination product for COPD. Prior to consulting, Dr. Surber was the first employee at Aires Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Mast Therapeutics in 2014) where he was project lead and an inventor of Aironite^™, an inhaled medicine for treatment of pulmonary hypertension and heart failure. Dr. Surber was also and first employee at Mpex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Aptalis Pharma in 2011) where he held multiple positions of responsibility including project lead and inventor of Quinsair^®, an inhaled medicine marketed for the treatment of cystic fibrosis.

Dr. Surber is well-published and holds multiple patents in formulation, drug delivery, pharmacology and pulmonary medicine. He has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois, and a M.S. and B.Sc. from California State University, Long Beach.